Cyberbrethren: A Lutheran Blog

Concordia Publishing House is now offering a special lower price on the Concordia edition of the Book of Concord: $22 a copy. If you purchase more than $70 worth, you receive free shipping/handling.

So, it is time for congregations to stock up again. I highly recommend that you "batch" an order together. Announce the book in your congregation, or in whatever group you wish, and place a batch order.

At over 65,000 copies in distribution, Concordia continues to gain in popularity as a "one stop shop" for learning what it means to be, and remain, a Lutheran.

Batman

I'm with my good friend, Pastor Weedon, on the latest Batman movie: it was trying much too hard to be profound, and finally, was not. It packed too many plot lines into the (too long) movie and I found it really nothing but disturbing and depressing. I'm thinking that men dressed up like flying rodents do not make for moral exemplars. The movie basically took all the fun out of the Batman genre, and that's too bad. I feel the same way about the newest Superman movie as well. The best movie I saw this summer (and summer is over, in my book, with the start of school), was Wall-E. Now there is one brilliantly executed movie that, whether the makers intended it not, contains one of the best "pro-life" message I've ever seen in a movie.

Sanctification and You

The old evil foe of an aversion to sanctification continues to rear its ugly head in Lutheran circles, sad to say. Most recently I was in conversation with some folks who flatly asserted that Christians have no need of the Law since they are now guided by Love through the Gospel.

While this sounds quite reasonable and true, upon closer inspection we realize that in making such an assertion what the result is, is that the Gospel becomes Law.

Even as we reject legalism in the Church and put forward, firmly, the all sufficient sacrifice of Christ on the Cross for us, and His continuing power of salvation for us and therefore in us, we dare not forget that we are called to lives of good works, in Him, for Him and through Him: justification and sanctification. Lutheranism teaches both. We are to talk about the good works we are to be doing, and no, this is not merely/only by way of condemning sin. The Scriptures are replete with St. Paul describing the nature and consequences of the new life in Christ. A blog site put up this wonderful twist on the Rick Warren "Purpose Driven Life" book, which finally leaves the Christian not comforted, but only thrown back on his own resources. On the blog where this picture appeared, I provided a number of quotes from the Small Catechism that go along perfectly with a clear exposition of the Gospel. And here they are.

Christ lived, and lives, for us. We live in Him, and for him.

He gives us all His good gifts "all...out of pure, fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me." What is our response? "For all which I owe it to Him to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him."

Christ lived a purpose driven life for me, and for you. Why?

"In order that I may be wholly His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness."

And because of what Christ did . . .

"He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers."

Consequently, as the Word is taught purely among us...

"We as the children of God also lead holy lives in accordance with it" and in this way hallow God's name.

This life is one of progress, not perfection. We strive to serve our Lord, according to His grace and mercy. There are some who say that we should not get into details in explaining and describing what it means to serve and obey God, or what that life is that we live in His kingdom, or what precisely it means to live holy lives in accordance with God's Word. But such a viewpoint has no justification, no pun intended, in light of God's Word and our Lutheran Confessions.

"A Struggle with the Devil" — The Ongoing Relevance and Need for the Augsburg Confession

This is a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Gottfried Martens. Dr. Martens is the pastor of St. Mary's Lutheran Church in Berlin-Zehlendorf, a member congregation of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany. You can read more about Pastor Martens' ministry in Berlin, in an article that appears in the seminary magazine For the Life of the World. This sermon was translated by Pastor Peter A. Bauernfeind. I went to the church's web site and am enjoying hearing one of Dr. Martens' sermons on "wellness propaganda"! Hearing Law and Gospel proclaimed so clearly, in Germany, brings a particular joy to my heart. In the Berlin area, for instance, only 4% of the population attends any worship service at all, and of that number, far fewer are blessed to hear the faithful proclamation of God's Holy Word, such as is delivered by God through His servant, Pastor Martens. Thanks be to God. Consider then the enormous challenge of ministry in modern-day Germany and realize how even more unique it is to hear such a message, challenging all us to recognize the ongoing relevance of the Augsburg Confession.

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time – he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (ESV)

Today we examine another confession, not the Apostles’ Creed, which we have spent the the past few months looking at. Today is about the unaltered version of the Augsburg Confession, which was delivered 478 years ago today at the Diet in Augsburg to the Holy Roman Emperor, and yes, there is also an altered version of the Augsburg Confession that contains problematic content! The pastors of our Lutheran Church to this day will still bind themselves at their ordination to that unaltered version, just as the congregational bylaws of St. Mary’s Church cite the unaltered version as the basis for all our doctrines and confessions. Yes, the Augsburg Confession is the only confession in our Lutheran confessional writings which the Church year has given its very own day of commemoration, and so this evening we will again reflect on what we actually confess and what the Confession itself says.

Treasury of Daily Prayer -- The Push Cart Edition!

Yesterday we sent Treasury of Daily Prayer off to the printer and the final pages were printed out. The easiest way to carry them around for final approval was to put them all on a push cart! Rev. Scot Kinnaman snapped a pic with his iPhone of the "Cart Edition" of the Treasury of Daily Prayer. God willing, we'll have books to ship out toward the middle or end of October.

Don't Miss These New CPH Resources

Please take note of two fantastic new resources from CPH (Yes, I know I say everything is fantastic that I mention, but they are!). And if you find these things of interest would you pass all this along the Internet, the old, “world-wide-everybody.”

Away in a Manger: Resources for Advent-Christmas Preaching and Worship

Pastors, in particular, be looking for the mailing from CPH describing our newest children’s Christmas program for 2008: Away in a Manger. But....also please notice in that mailing the flyer for an even newer resource from CPH, a comprehensive Advent and Christmas program for the entire parish, that dovetails perfectly with the Christmas program. It too is called Away in a Manger and it is authored by Rev. Dr. Scott Murray, of Houston, Texas. It offers four sermon studies and sermons (three midweek service); four Bible studies (student and leader pages); four children’s messages; worship resources for Advent and Christmas; and a CD-ROM with all these resources on it for personal adaptations in Rich Text Format. The pastor’s kit also comes with a sample of the Away in a Manger Devotional Book and the worship bulletins created for this series.

For more information about this comprehensive Advent/Christmas resource, and to see the sermon series, visit the product's web site.

The price is $26.99 and you may place an order either on the web, or by calling CPH at 800-325-3040 and requesting item number: 15-5112

Sing the Faith: The Small Catechism Set to Music

This is a complete recording of the Small Catechism, with the entire text broken down into manageable “chunks” all set to song. It is incredibly powerful and the reactions we have been getting from teachers and pastors have been: “I want it, now!” It’s that good. The music was composed by the gifted church musician, Phil Magness, and Singing the Faith comes  presently as a CD-ROM and there is also a companion songbook with the complete music for instruction or performance.

You can hear samples and read more about these resources. The price is $7.99 for the CD-ROM (item number 79-0004) and $19.99 for the songbook (item number 22-3109). You may place an order for these items on the web, or by calling 800-325-3040.

Just one more thing....

In conjunction with our new Fall catalog, that is now “live” and ready for you... We are offering the Concordia edition of the Book of Concord at a promotional price point again, of $22.00, and orders from the catalog of $70.00 dollars or more qualify for free shipping and handling. You can also shop from the new catalog on-line.

So, word to the wise, and all that....take advantage of this lower price. Consider batching an order together from your congregation and sending it in for your Fall study programs. Call your order in at 800-325-3040. Or place your order on-line.

I hope this information is useful to you. Would you please spread the word on these resources to your various friends, colleagues, e-mail lists, blogs, groups, etc.

 

PS — In a little bit I’ll be able to tell you more about the Treasury of Daily Prayer which went to the printer this week. Here’s a picture of it, as the the “push-cart edition” -- we had to load the final pages up on a cart to push around. More later, oh, one more thing....coming soon I’ll be able to tell you and show you a great new Sunday children’s worship resource titled Growing in Worship. You are going to love it. Exciting things. I’m bursting with anticipation but I need a bit more time before I can spill all the details. Coming soon though. Be looking.

Day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord, Mother of God

Mary can’t be sufficiently praised as a creature, but that the Creator himself comes to us and becomes our ransom—this is the reason for our rejoicing.

Martin Luther
Table Talk No. 494

Painting: Jungfrun i bön (1640-1650) by Sassoferrato; National Gallery, London.

Concordia Electronic Theological Library Has Been Updated

I have good news for all existing owners of the most comprehensive collection of Lutheran theological resources in digital format: the Concordia Electronic Theological Library. All the files have been updated to be fully compatible with the latest version of the Libronix edition software that runs it. So, it can now take advantage of all the latest and greatest features of the LOGOS DLS system.

NOTE: You must own the CETL file in order to update them. May sound like something obvious, but you would be surprised at the questions I get.

So, here are instructions on updating, but kindly do note that I can not, nor can CPH, provide technical support. If you need more help please be in directly contact with Logos:

Email Support: support@logos.com
Telephone Support: (800) 875-6467

There is a very good Logos blog post (from last Wednesday) about
updating resources here:

http://blog.logos.com/archives/2008/08/updating_your_resources.html

Basically - it winds up being a link that I have added to My
Favorites. It runs a similar script to Logos update (the one you
access from Tools->Libronix Update) but instead of updating the
Libronix "engine" and key resources, it looks for any updated files
on the Logos ftp site and downloads them. I tend to run it once a
week rather than once a month (as the blog post recommends for a
minimum).

If you have never run this, you may find that there are a huge number
of resources to update. If you have a fast connection - no problem.
If a slow connection, you may want to do it in chunks.

Get to Know Your Church's Confessions: For the Sake of the Treasure

Take these words to heart. Share them with your Lutheran friends and family members. Challenge your congregation to take a real and genuine interest in studying the Lutheran Confessions. Pastors, share this comment with your congregation. Lutheran laymen, hand this quote to your pastor and ask him to lead your congregation in a parish-wide study of the Lutheran Confessions. Thanks to LOGIA: A Journal of Lutheran Theology, for an excellent recent issue devoted to Löhe, here is a snippet from an article in that issue, titled, "Why I Declare Myself for the Lutheran Church." Wilhelm Löhe, whom Dr. C.F.W. Walther described as the true spiritual father of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, had this to say about our Lutheran Confessions.

I declare myself for the Lutheran Church for the sake of the treasure.  The Lutheran Church lacks many things I would like to see in it, but it has something that lets it be the true church despite all shortcomings, and for the sake of which I find it easy and beautiful to be faithful to it in its outward misery.  Do you know what I am talking about?  I am talking about its utterly pure confession and its pure doctrine in conformity with its confession.  Who has ever proved that its confession is in error in any doctrinal article?  When speaking of its confession, I am not only talking about the Augsburg Confession, but about the entire Book of Concord from the Augsburg Confession all the way to the Formula of Concord.  You do not know these writings, dear reader, otherwise you would agree with me.  Get to know them and you will agree.  What is more beautiful, lovely, powerful, and lively than Luther’s catechisms?  What is more catholic than the Augsburg Confession and its Apology?  What is more thoughtful and bold than the Smalcald Articles?  And what is slandered more wrongfully than the beautiful Formula of Concord in its clean but mild definition of all teachings?  Dear reader, I repeat, you do not know your Church’s confessions of faith.  Get to know them in order to know why you adhere to your church.

The Book of Concord and Why You Should Read It

An excellent explanation by a Lutheran pastor to his congregation on why the Book of Concord is important, and why they need to read it. You might want to consider using this in your congregation's newsletter, or on your own blog site. Thanks, Pastor Krenz. Pastor Jonathon Krenz serves a parish in Dorr, Michigan.

Beloved in the Lord, hopefully you’ve been reading and meditating on the Book of Concord readings included in your bulletin each week. These come to us from the Book of Concord website, www.bookofconcord.org, where you can read the entire Book of Concord, along with background information, some great Lutheran resources, a blog devoted to the Book of Concord, as well as finding links to Lutheran sermons and a daily devotion called “Five Minutes with Luther.” I highly recommend this website and encourage you to check it out.

The Book of Concord is also known as the Lutheran Confessions, or the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Published as a collection in 1580, it contains the three ecumenical creeds (the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed), the Augsburg Confession (written in 1530) and its Apology (defense) (1531), the Smalcald Articles (1537), the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (1537), Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms (1529), and the Formula of Concord (1577). Together these writings, known as symbols, tell us what it means to be Lutheran.

The Lutheran Confessions are not the Bible. No one claims that they are. The Holy Scriptures alone are the inspired and inerrant Word of God and the sole rule and norm of our doctrine and life. But as Lutherans, we believe the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord are the correct “summary and explanation” of the Scriptures. This is what the frequently asked questions section of the Book of Concord site says: “Since we have the Bible, why do we have the Book of Concord? The Lutheran Confessions are a summary and explanation of the Bible. They are not placed over the Bible. They do not take the place of the Bible. The Book of Concord is how Lutherans are able to say, together, as a church, ‘This is what we believe. This is what we teach. This is what we confess.’ The reason we have the Book of Concord is because of how highly we value correct teaching and preaching of God's Word.”

So why should you read the Book of Concord? There are many reasons. Here are at least five:

1. If you’re a Lutheran, the Lutheran Confessions are your confessions. The Lutheran Confessions tell us what it means to be Lutheran. At the very least, you should know the Small Catechism and be familiar with the Large Catechism and the Augsburg Confession. We include the weekly Book of Concord readings with the hope of familiarizing you with these confessions.

2. You should read these confessions precisely because they are the correct “summary and explanation” of the Scriptures. They will help you grow in your knowledge and understanding of Scripture and strengthen your faith. The Lutheran Confessions can be prayed and read devotionally.

3. The Lutheran Confessions unite us to our fathers in the faith throughout history, including the Reformation and the Early Church. The Early Church fathers wrote the creeds, and our Reformation fathers wrote the rest of the confessions. The Reformation fathers also made use of many of the Early Church’s writings. In other words, the Lutheran Confessions show us to be an authentic catholic church body, solidly grounded in the Holy Scriptures and one with the one holy Christian (or catholic) and apostolic Church confessed in the Nicene Creed.

4. The Lutheran Confessions promote the unity of the Christian Church. The word “concord” means “harmony.” The Book of Concord was compiled as a collection of confessions around which Christendom could be united. If anyone confesses the Christian faith as we confess it in the Book of Concord, we consider him one with us. The Book of Concord also serves as a piece for doctrinal discussion with other church bodies. These church bodies know where we stand on the basis of the Lutheran Confessions, and what we require for altar and pulpit fellowship.

5. The Lutheran Confessions proclaim Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 1:23, 2:2). They proclaim above all else the chief doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and the Christian Church: justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This is the chief reason you should read the Lutheran Confessions.

We will continue reading and studying these confessions together in Bible classes and in the weekly bulletin. I encourage you to read them at home as well. We can only be strengthened as we use them to gain a deeper understanding of the Scriptures and what it means to be a Lutheran.

Pastor Krenz